


HeadHunters: Origins

by ProfoundCranium



Category: Halo (Video Games) & Related Fandoms, RWBY
Genre: Gen
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2019-01-25
Updated: 2019-01-24
Packaged: 2019-10-15 19:13:18
Rating: Mature
Warnings: Graphic Depictions Of Violence
Chapters: 1
Words: 3,575
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/17534564
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/ProfoundCranium/pseuds/ProfoundCranium
Summary: Blood, bullets and gunpowder. Familiar smells for Ruby since she was a child. How did she end up with Weiss? This is that story.





	HeadHunters: Origins

 

The cafeteria was surprisingly quiet. It sounded more like a library than a cafeteria, at least, that's what I hear Glynda say all the time when she's watching us. Today wasn't like that though. Glynda wasn't glaring at us from across the room as we quietly ate our food in silence. Today was an off day, a day to rest after intense training sessions on Vale. So, my team had decided to take a minute to eat properly at our own pace before hitting the gym. Most soldiers would take advantage of days like today to rest or oversleep. But at this point, our schedules are so ingrained that it feels wrong to veer from it. I'm walking down an aisle between two tables, tray of food in my hands as I march carefully towards my team. The only group of people in the whole room. Probably why it was so quiet now that I think about it. The room is boring, giant steel walls with linoleum tile flooring. The whole thing just screams manufactured. Not that I have a problem with it. I grew up in these halls. So did everyone else.

I take my seat next at the end of the table, sitting next to one of my squad mates as I place my tray of food down. "Is everyone here?" I already knew the answer to my question. Spending years working with the same people makes you hyper aware of where everyone is at. Of course, all it takes is leaving someone behind once in the middle of a forest before you get really paranoid about where everyone is.

"Here!" A bubbly ginger waved her arms at the other side of the table I was sitting at. She was dressed in typical Combat boots, cargo pants and tank top, as were the rest of us. Classic Nora, being excited as ever.

"Pyrrha?"

"Hello!" Next to Nora sat a grinning redhead, her hair pulled into a decent length ponytail that fell down to her neckline. I waved to her before calling out another name.

"Coco?"

"Down here Chief!" I leaned forward and peered down the long rectangular table, seeing a short haired brunette saluting me from the end of the table.

"Fox?"

"I am here." I turn my attention to the left of Coco, and see a dark skinned man drinking from his glass of water, giving me a thumbs up. A gesture I quickly return before moving on.

"Yatsuhashi?"

"Here." I glance across from Fox  and see a large man sitting calmly with his eyes closed and hands placed together in front of himself in prayer.  I simply nod in acknowledgement, leaving Yatsu to his ritual.

"Blake?"

"Present." I turn my gaze even further down the table, seeing a raven-haired woman sitting next to Yatsu, calmly writing into a notebook. Blake glances up, momentarily meeting my eyes. We share a small nod before returning to our respective task, her to her notes, and me to taking a head count.

"Sun."

"Down Here!" I turn around to my right, seeing Sun sitting next to another squad mate as he waves at me, infectious smile spread across his face. I return his smile before zeroing my gaze upon the blue haired man sitting next to him. Neptune looks up at me for a moment and almost immediately gives me a small grin and a nod before returning to his food.

"And finally, Yang." I nudge my shoulder against the woman I sat next to, staring at her as she swallowed her mouthful of packaged military rations. Yang turns to regard me with a smile, eyes gleaming in amusement.

"C'mon sis. You know I'm always here." I returned Yang's joy with a slightly larger grin than normal. "True, but you know I always make sure. I don't want another repeat of The Mountain Incident." The entire table save Blake, Fox, and Yatsu, gave a low groan of annoyance.

"C'mon Ruby! How long are you gonna keep bringing that up?" I turn my gaze over to Sun as he spoke. "I'll stop bringing it up when I know for sure you won't ever get left behind on a desolate mountaintop because you were to busy playing tag with a monkey." Sun blushed a very light shade of red before it immediately vanished.

"I swore it would never happen again okay! Now let's drop it and eat, we have a schedule to keep." Everyone ceased their various antics and began to eat. I simply took stock of everyone and watched them eat instead. I had developed a bad habit of eating last in an effort to make sure everyone else ate. It probably wasn't healthy, but neither was half the training regimens we had done throughout our admittedly short lives. Go figure.

We made a strange team, us eight. Their used to be more of us. Many more. Unfortunately, the augmentation process isn't one hundred percent safe. It has a bad habit of killing you almost thirty percent of the time if you were unlucky. I still remember that day, hearing about just how many were dead, feeling guilt for being happy that my core team had gone through the surgery more or less unscathed. I take stock of them all, thinking about each member before filing the information away for use later. My eyes focus in on Yang first, who was currently chugging a bottle of water before crushing it in her hands and dropping it back on her tray.

Yang was the person I had known the longest aboard Beacon. She's my sister, and she's the only stable thing from my past that I can actually recall. It's funny, Yang had always been taller and stronger than me. Guess god has a funny sense of humor, making those factors remain the same even after augmentation. I used to be short, five foot nothing, whilst Yang settled at almost six feet tall. Now, after augments, we both sat almost a foot and a half taller. Making us appear as adults despite our age.

My eyes roam over the table, taking in my team as they all ate in a measured speedy way, borne from years of being yelled at to hurry up. Everyone was as tall as most adults, and stronger than any normal human. We all had been through hell to get here, to the cusp of graduation. None of us knew if it was entirely worth it, but goddamn did it feel nice to think about leaving this station and seeing other planets. Finally doing what we had been made to.

"Ruby?" I turn, refocusing my gaze on Pyrrha.

"Yes?" Pyrrha simply motions to my untouched tray of food. No words need to be said after, I get the message clear enough. I do need to eat, so I do so with no argument, picking up my pack of rations before tearing it open and taking a bite of the bitter meat within. It was stiff, and generally hard to chew through. The taste wasn't much better, but eat them for enough time and it just becomes normal.

"We're all going to the gym after this right?" Yang asked as she sips from her bowl of soup. Ruby already knew the answer to her question, we all did, but it was tradition at this point to ask anyway. I simply nodded while observing everyone.

Something today had felt off, like a bad omen. I could tell, Blake was tense even if she was trying to hide it. Pyrrha was guarded constantly turning over her shoulder. Nora was less energetic, simply tapping her fingers on the table, antsy to move. Sun was patting his leg in a rhythm that none of us could decipher, Neptune doing the same. Yatsu and Fox kept stealing glances at each other, almost to confirm with each other that they weren't making up ghost feelings. Then there was me, constantly patting my hip for a gun that wasn't there even if I wished it was.

"Guys?" We all turn over to glance at Coco, although I can probably guess what she's about to say.

"You all feel it too right?" Everyone gave a small nod in response to her question.

"Yeah, something feels wrong." I pick up on a small detail that has me put my food down and frown in anxious concern.

"Everyone!" The whole team stops speaking to look at me, fully attentive.

"Listen." I point to my ear, gesturing what I want everyone to do. For a handful of seconds afterward the whole cafeteria is silent. No-one breaths and you could probably hear a bullet casing drop from the hangar if you listened hard enough. Blake got it first, amber eyes snapping open as she stood up.

"It's too quiet. We should be able to hear the engine generators running. But we don't, somethings wrong." I nod in my approval before standing myself up, everyone else following suit.

"We should go see Ozpin. He'll know what's going on-" My words were stolen away as the lights flickered and went out all at once, plunging the room into complete blackness. The only remaining source of light being the planet of Vale as it shined through the windows. Everyone was immediately standing up, ready for combat and tense as all hell.

"Coco, armory." We could see perfectly fine in the dark, although colors were a bit muted. I picked Coco out of the group easily, as did everyone else.

"The armory is on the other side of the Station, by Hangar Bay Two." I nod at her explanation.

"Alright everyone. We are under attack, priorities are as follows. One, arm ourselves sufficiently. Two, radio for assistance and reinforcements. And three, locate any friendlies and bring them to safety. This is a stealth op, assume the enemy is heavily armed and trained. Understood?" The team nodded, determination blazing in their eyes. We all moved towards the west Cafeteria exit, intent on navigating the steel hallways that would lead us to the armory. We all flowed into a normal formation, Yatsu and Fox taking up the rear while Yang, Pyrrha, and I took point. Nora, Coco, Blake, and Neptune grouped up in the middle, constantly scanning for threats. We walked for awhile, navigating through the dark in dead silence as we took turn after turn down the steel hallways. Every now and then we would hear gunshots or screams echo down the halls. We would always freeze together when this happened, waiting for a threat to show itself, but nothing ever attacked us, and the screams always stopped almost immediately. We just kept Marching through the dark.

Eventually, footsteps could be heard down the upcoming left hallway. I held my fist up telling everyone to stop. I looked back and nodded at Nora, who immediately understood and walked in front of me, inching closer to the corner of the wall. The footsteps were coming closer, Ruby could tell that there was more than one person coming towards them at a steady, jogging pace. Three to be exact. I looked back and pointed at Blake and Yang, motioning them forward to stand behind Nora. We all sat there in a line, huddled up against the wall as the footsteps drew closer.

Seconds later a person turned around the corner. In that moment, everything slowed down to a halt, almost like slow motion. Five seconds passed, but it felt like twenty. I used that extra time to observe the three soldiers running past us, oblivious to my team's presence. They were all men, as the shape of they're gear showed. My attention focused on the one leading the group. He were dressed in all black gear, helmet over his head as he held his gun pointed down. He had several armor plates covering his vital spots. Behind them, I could see the two other soldiers, wearing identical gear.  Time seemed to speed up ever so slightly as the soldiers slid to a stop, noticing the rest of my team standing at the end of the hallway we were in. The three soldiers raised they're guns almost in sync. Too bad that Nora, Blake, Yang and I are almost five time faster than normal humans.

The black garbed soldier in the back didn't even notice what hit him before Nora punched him in the back of the head. Almost simultaneously, Yang reached out and grabbed the second soldier, locking the smaller human in a choke hold. Blake immediately started punching the head locked soldier in the chest, systemically caving in his armor along with his ribs. I kicked off the wall I was leaning against, sailing at the soldier furthest from us that was way too close to my squad. I crashed into him, falling on top of him as he let out a shallow grunt of pain. I took a second to stare at his gear before finding what I wanted and yanking a knife from a holster on his arm. The soldier was trying to shove me off, but his flailing did him no favors against an augmented super soldier. I buried the knife in his unarmored throat, listening as he gave a wet gurgle. He shivered for a few seconds before he fell still. I wrenched the knife out, wiping it off on his pants before snatching away his holster and clipping it onto my own pants, along with the knife.

"Ruby." I turn around, taking stock of the other soldiers. The one Nora punched was still on the floor where he landed. The punch must have knocked him out, or killed him. The soldier Blake was beating the shit out of now lay on the ground, his chest armor dented inward way more than it should have been. Nora and Yang were already stripping the bodies of any weapons, whilst Blake walked over towards me, handing me a pistol.

"It's not UNSC issue, there isn't any brand. It's home-made." I take the gun from Blake, feeling over the handle and rack for the telltale UNSC brand that permeated all weapons they made. Alas, Blake was correct. There was no brand. A very worrying discovery. Blake handed me a pistol holster which I gladly accepted before walking back towards the rest of the group.

"Nice job guys. The plan worked perfectly." Everyone let out a barely audible sigh of relief.

"Hopefully we won't be bait this whole time will we?" Coco voiced the obvious concern of the group. I responded in kind.

"Negative, we have acquired some weapons that will allow us to be a little more aggressive in our tactics. Ammo is limited so use it sparingly."

A few minutes later the six guns on the soldiers had been handed out amongst us. Blake and I decided to stick with some knives we had gained instead of taking a weapon. A throwing knife is almost as good as a gun anyway.

"Everyone ready?" The whole group nodded in response to my question.

"Move out." We took formation again as we once again began our slow trek through the dark halls of Beacon.

It took another fifteen minutes of stalking through the dark, but we finally managed to get to the armory. It was slow work, being stealthy removed any sense of speed from the equation. Luckily, it seemed like the enemy group they had found earlier was a fluke as we had managed to get through the rest of the way without running into any more hostiles. Of course, this was a bittersweet feeling because all it meant was that the rest of the soldiers that were undoubtedly here had probably landed in Hangar bay One on the other side of the ship. I punched in a code, allowing the armory doors to slide open in front of me. The normally quiet sound seemed to bounce down the darkened steel halls, even though it was probably my sharpened senses exaggerating the noise.

"Inside." I waved each of my squad mates into the armory, making sure to count as I went. As I waved Yatsu inside, I quickly looked down both sides of the hallway that the armory door sat in. No-one seemed to be here, so I quickly slipped through the door before closing and locking the door behind me. I observed the room we were in, taking stock of what was available to us. Unfortunately, Scientific space stations didn't exactly stock up heavy weaponry. But it would be enough. Yang and Pyrrha stood over by a weapons locker, typing in a code to open it. They didn't seem to be having much luck. Everyone else was standing over by the several cabinets lining the other side of the wall, taking out several boxes of ammo, knives, and other such necessities that weren't valuable enough to be electrically locked. Instead they were sealed away with a simple padlock that was easily broken.

"Blake." The raven haired woman turned towards me, placing a crate of Assault Rifle ammo down. She walks over to me with rushed steps, clearly in combat mode.

"What is it?" I point at Yang and Pyrrha. "Go help them. Pop open the console and do what you need to." Blake's eyes narrow, pupils dilating into vertical slits.

"What about the alarm system? Won't that go off if I tamper with the console?" I shake my head at Blake's understandable question.

"Negative, we're running on emergency power right now. All of it's being used to keep the oxygen systems running." Blake simply nods and walks over to the weapon locker control console, pushing past Yang and Pyrrha as she pops open the terminal, getting to work on it's innards.

I dash over to everyone else, taking stock of the supplies we've accumulated so far. We have more than enough ammo, though it won't matter unless we can open up the cabinet. We have knives for everyone, more stun batons than we could really ask for, and we even have access to a few flashbangs and smoke grenades.

"Is this everything?" Coco turns to look at me as she shoves another ammo crate away from the closet.

"Yes, everything that we can actually use. There are frags as well, but all they would do is breach the hull and we don't have any airtight armor." I nod at Coco's reasoning, accepting her logical conclusions.

"Affirmative. Everyone take at least two knives and one stun baton. After that, divide the ammo up by category and await further instructions." Everyone sans Blake, Yang, and Pyrrha give a small salute and carry out their orders, nabbing a few knives from a nearby pile as they carry around ammo boxes.

"Chief?" I turn around and see Pyrrha standing there, hands behind her back.

"What is it?" Pyrrha simply points back at the now open weapons locker.

"Blake worked her magic. We now have access to the Weapons Locker."

I nod in satisfaction, walking right over to the open fenced gate. Pyrrha follows me as we enter the fenced off weapons locker.

The area is simple, a simple 6x12 space surrounded by a reinforced chain-link fence, with several racks of various guns lining the walls. Impossible for us to get through in any quiet or safe manner. Good thing most of us have some experience in hacking and mechanical engineering. Blake and Yang are already tugging some Burst Rifles off the shelves before glancing up and greeting me with a tense nod.

"Everyone else is organizing ammo outside, go ask them what guns they will need out of here. And grab a few knives and stun batons while your at it." I order Blake and Yang. They immediately walk back out of the weapons locker, taking their guns with them.

"Well Chief? What should we grab?" I hear Pyrrha ask behind me. I simply observe the room for a minute, calculating the weapons we have and their subsequent use in this scenario. Stealth will be a mandatory, so anything with silencers won't be applicable. AR's are non usable because of their lack of accuracy. Sniper rifles will be more of a hindrance than a boon in these tight hallways. Everything else should be usable. I turn to the left, seeing another set of small lockers labeled 'Armor'.

"There." I point at the armor lockers. "We're gonna need some armor. Even if it's something basic." Pyrrha walks up next to me, staring at the armor locker before turning to me.

"What about our armor sir? Don't we have our specialized armor onboard?" I nod my head.

"No, our armor is undergoing repairs offsite because of damage from our last assassination op." I walk to one of the lockers and open it. I am rewarded with several sets of standard UNSC armor. Helmets, chest plates, kneepads, gauntlets, gloves, backpacks, spare clothes, and boots. All of the armor is painted in various shades of green. Each armor set is displayed in a stack, organized for efficiency. No clear ranks are given to the armor but it looks pretty bare bones. We could make it work. I grab a stack and give it to Pyrrha.

"Here, help me hand these out, we need to get suited up. We have ship to take back." Pyrrha gives me a terse nod, confidence clear in her eyes before turning around and joining the rest of the team outside.

I follow her.

 

  
  



End file.
